Congratulations to our friend Matt Hope, whose film The Vanguard has just secured a UK distribution deal (amongst other territories including Germany and Japan) at the Berlin European Film Market.

Filmed on 35mm for a modest budget, The Vanguard mixes elements of Mad Max, I Am Legend and 28 Days Later as a government drug causes most of the citizens of the UK to devolve into zombie-like creatures called Biosyns. With stunning photography, an iconic lead roll and a smart, intelligent script, this film has the words 'cult classic' written all over it.

Rumour has it that Lionsgate will release the film on Region 2 DVD in October.

The World is in chaos – the last known oil fields have been vanquished, over-population has reached critical levels and mankind is about to become a thing of the past.

Out of this apocalyptic nightmare, an entity known only as the Corporation devised a course of action to cull the human race and initialise a depopulation program. But the drug they created to kill instead reduces humans to a primitive ape-like state, now known as Biosyns. Their sight reduced to virtual blindness, the Biosyns rely on scent and sound to survive, running wild in the unpopulated countryside.

But for Max – a young man cast adrift into the wilderness to live as a hunter / gatherer – the Biosyns are the enemy, and must be fought in order to preserve his very existence. Max has forged a life without human contact, and every day is a battle to survive.

Soon the Biosyns begin to evolve – learning first to communicate, then banding together, their vision slowly returning – and now they’re coming for Max.

Unbeknownst to Max, the Corporation has dispatched a group of genetically engineered soldiers – known as Trackers – to wipe out the Biosyns and to hunt down and kill Max, fearing he may be the antidote to the world they created…